John McCain thinks the day the Supreme Court decided that incorporated groups of people who criticize politicians are protected by the First Amendment was worse than the day the Supreme Court declared that black people are non-citizens.

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on Monday, October 15th, 2012 at 11:41 am by Radley Balko
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His dog is lucky she didn’t get shot. My dog constantly grabs a free phone and brings it to bed. That and shoes. She is very gentle with all of them. Funny thing is that 8 years ago, she landed in my living room as a short term foster. We found a home for her, and I got a call a few days later saying that she was stealing shoes and bringing them into bed and they would have to take her to the pound if I didn’t come pick her up. Sucks for those people, because she’s a really cool dog.

22-year-old with severe food allergies arrested on a misdemeanor pot charge. The next day, he’s found dead in his jail cell.

Another young man sacrificed on the altar of prohibition.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, an’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, an’ how many deaths will it take until he knows
That too many people have died? ~ Bob Dylan Blowing in the Wind

Of course McCain thinks that. McCain is, and always has been, a self absorbed twerp. For him, NOTHING that took place before his birth can possibly be as important and an issue involving his wonderful self.

Gods, voting for him was really a matter of holding my nose. I honestly thought, though, and still think, that Obama was going to be a WORSE self absorbed twerp.

If there is any justice in the afterlife, McCain will spend a few thousand years living in a paradise ably run by and for people who pay him absolutely no attention.

Thurgood Marshall slipped away from deliberations each day to watch Days of Our Lives. The show wasn’t just a guilty pleasure; it helped shape the justice’s understanding of the world. As Marshall once told Justice William Brennan, soaps teach viewers valuable lessons about life.

Timmy Pea (#16): “I read that profile on George Romney and now I have changed my vote from Mitt to Obama. Thanks for that link, clearly the 1964 election will be a huge factor in the 2012 race.“

I was previously convinced that Mitt’s stance on Vietnam was of such great importance, that current events didn’t matter. Now I’ve been shown the light. It’s even older stories that matter most.

And, don’t you filthy republicans mention Wright, Ayers, Davis, or any of that other irrelevant ancient history. You’re racist!

</sarc>

I don’t participate in the Coke vs. Pepsi wars, even if I recognize that one is a little more damaging than the other. I respect your rights too much to give any rotten politician a permission slip to violate your rights.

The court decided that you couldn’t have one set of rules for the Tribune corporation and another for a corporation called Citizens United. And given a choice between ordering the New York Times to stop publishing news stories on politics or allowing all companies the same privileges accorded to the Times, they made the no-brainer correct choice.

“The freedom of the press and freedom of speech is an existential threat to the United States?”

Yes it is. You and I both know that Citizen’s united is resulting in the takeover of our government by oligarchs. it might be free speech, but it also will, in the long run, end most freedom’s for all but the very few. David Koch is not interested in protecting your freedom, just his money.

This is history repeating itself. From the end of the roman republic to the formation of the soviet union, freedom falls when the oligarchs co-opt the political system.

Yes it is. You and I both know that Citizen’s united is resulting in the takeover of our government by oligarchs. it might be free speech, but it also will, in the long run, end most freedom’s for all but the very few. David Koch is not interested in protecting your freedom, just his money.

The takeover of the United States govt by oligarchs happened back in the Woodrow Wilson administration. Which predates Citizens United. Moreover, the suppression of criticism of politicians is what oligarchs love, and what freedom of the press and speech is supposed to prevent.

In Citizens United, the government sought to censor a movie criticizing a powerful politician. As I said, it’s a fucking no-brainer. The guys screaming about Citizens United are the oligarchs.

More to the point, the Oligarchs are gaming the system, their name is Republicans and Democrats. Not Joe Republican and Barney Democrat, not even the Republicans and Democrats you saw on the floor of the recent conventions. The Oligarchs gaming the system are the Republicans and Democrats you rarely get to see sitting in the seats above the convention floor. The Republicans who watched from above with approval as votes for Ron Paul were ignored and went uncounted, the Democrats who watched from above with approval as the convention chair, Antonio Villaraigosa, ignored the “No” vote of the convention and declared as passed a motion to adopt god and Jerusalem into their platform.

They are the same Republicans and Democrats who have set up their apparatchiks in their Potemkin paean to democracy the Commission on Presidential Debates, an institution organized and designed for the purpose to ensure no outside voices will be heard.

#24 | crzyb0b | //Yes it is. You and I both know that Citizen’s united is resulting in the takeover of our government by oligarchs.//

McCain/Feingold did nothing to weaken the oligarchs who are rich and powerful enough to simply buy media outlets. What it sought to do was protect those oligarchs from competition from other groups who couldn’t afford to buy media outlets, but would be able to scrape up enough to buy advertising.

Those who oppose the Court’s decision seem to be of the view that it’s better to have a few people who are extremely powerful, and the bulk of the populace equally powerless, than to have a continuum where different people have different amounts of power. The same philosophy often extends to other issues as well, manifesting itself e.g. as a belief that it’s better to have a health-care system where only a few people can get better health care than anyone else, while the vast majority of the populace is stuck with the same thing (does anyone really think Obama isn’t going to demand better health care for himself than he makes available to others?)

“Those who oppose the Court’s decision seem to be of the view that it’s better to have a few people who are extremely powerful, and the bulk of the populace equally powerless, than to have a continuum where different people have different amounts of power. ”

The Effect of the court’s decision is exactly the opposite. It is amplifying the power of the extremely powerful.